The Curiosity rover has updated it's software, moved it's wheels, tested it's laser, and started rolling. In today's show, Ron and Robyn will share all the news and mission updates from the red planet.

At our last After Dark in our current home, the theme was Mars! On display the museum has a full-scale model of the Mars rover Curiosity, which arrived on the red planet Sunday, August 5. At After Dark, we had Martians, robots, and extraterrestrials in the crowd! There were Martian themed lectures, a live webcast, and activities like the Egg Drop, where visitors practiced landing a homemade Rover safely onto the ground. Red skies at night offer fun and delight.

How do you work with a robot millions of miles away to make scientific discoveries on a planet you've never set foot on? How do scientists and engineers begin to "see like a rover"- and what can this tell us about who we are as meaning-making creatures? Find out how, by studying the team behind the rover mission, we learn about more than just the surface of Mars.

The Curiosity rover has an incredible tool mounted on the mast, called the "ChemCam",which is a rock-zapping laser and telescope! This laser can hit rock or soil targets up to about 23 ft (or 7 meters) away. In today's show, Ron and Paul will share details about this amazing suite of tools!

In today's webcast, Exploratorium hosts Ron Hipschman and Robyn Higdon will look at the tools and technology on the robotic arm of the Mars rover, Curiosity. What are some of the scientific instruments and capabilities of NASA's newest rover on Mars?

Join us today for a very special Mars webcast! We will have our staff scientists talking about new images from Mars, and the cameras that take those pictures. We also have two special musical guests joining us; Thomas Dolby will sing in the show, and Reggie Watts will sing us out!

What would it be like on Mars? Get a sense of Martian living with Exploratorium scientist Paul Doherty. He'll introduce the capabilities of the new rover and demonstrate what the planet would look, smell, and feel like to someone on the ground. Learn how things would fall, how they'd burn, and the shape a Martian snowflake should take in a snowstorm.

Webcasts made possible through the generosity of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Jim Clark Endowment for Internet Education, the McBean Family Foundation.

Bandwidth and infrastructure support for connectivity to the California Research and Education Network and to other Internet2-connected networks provided by the Corporation for Educational Networks Initiatives in California (CENIC).